Monday, October 1, 2012

Liberia: Mary's Meals

The main street through Tubmanburg in Bomi County. The front portions of the buildings on both sides of the road were recently removed to widen the road.

Another excursion we made while in Liberia was to the national center for Mary's Meals, a Scotish based organization that feeds hundreds of thousands of school children every day in various countries in Africa. Fr. Adrian and I are both personal friends with Magnus Macfarlane-Barrow, founder and president of Scotish International Relief/Mary's Meals, based in Dalmally, Scotland. A Scotsman, Chris MacLullich, and an American, Mike Miller, oversee the operations of Mary's Meals, as country director and financial officer respectively, in Liberia.

Mary's Meals also sponsors the Oscar Romero School for deaf children (below) on it's site in Tubmanburg. Many of these children had no education or communication abilities before coming here. It's a miracle to see how they emerge as persons and blossom as they grow in their ability to communicate and express themselves to one another.

Part of the reason for our visit to Mary's Meals was to bring Blessing (below with Ricardo from the Cenacolo Community) one of Fr. Adrian's parishioners from the Rick's community (an outstation where we celebrated Mass earlier) to show her the school. Blessing is deaf and has had no education. There was a slot open, so Fr. Adrian made the necessary arrangements for her to return as a student at the Oscar Romero School the following week.

Before leaving Bomi we travelled a few more miles down the road to the site of a former mine which has since filled with water and been trasformed into what is now known as the incredibly beautiful Blue Lake.

Panorama of Blue Lake (above) and yours truly on the shore (below).

For more information about Mary's Meals, view the trailer below for the new documentary CHILD 31, produced by our friends at Grassroots Films, and visit the website at: http://www.whoischild31.com/.